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Project Two Final

Page history last edited by Anisa 12 years, 5 months ago

The Turning Point

“The things you own end up owning you”. The novel the “Fight Club” is a strong well written novel that has been inspiring and influencing in the right way. Fight Club is a reflection and sufferings of a world controlled by consumerism.  Influenced by his camping trip Chuck Palahniuk, who is the author of Fight Club puts together a memorable and astonishing novel. Through pathos, ethos and through disturbing rather than inspiring facts the author explains self-destructive. Palahniuk has written a novel that is memorable and teaches us that we live in a modern society where we believe and do as the society does.

            In the novel the main character left nameless hates his life. His job as a recall specialist in a car manufacturer is not making his life any easier. The idea of consumerism has made a negative impact on his life. It has made him realize that furniture, clothes and materialistic things is defining him as a person.  He is an individual that is dissatisfied with his life, uncomfortable with the environment that he’s surrounded by, he suffers from insomnia. A disease that leaves him sleepless for days. After being told by the doctors that he needed to go to a support group for men with testicular cancer, he meets Bob. In this group Bob is a positive influence on him, because he helps him cry and is there to hold him. Although, he does not suffer from such things as cancer this support group is somewhat for him, until he meets Marla, a character whom he begins to hate. He thinks she’s the reason he cannot cry or is left sleepless at night. Therefore they both agree on to making an opposite schedule, so they do not see each other. All these friendships have not yet made an impact on him, until he meets Tyler Durden, a movie projectionist and a banquet waiter in downtown.  We come to the realization that Tyler Durden is only the alter ego of our nameless character.  Soon enough Tyler has an affair with Marla; they are involved in a sexual affair. Tired and sick of his life, the narrator and his alter ego Tyler Durden are at mid-life crises and are desperate for a change.

        As this narrator is baffled by the idea of how materialistic things are taking over his life, he calls Tyler and agreed to meet with him at a bar. Prior to the meeting the narrator finds out that his condominium has been exploded. Everything he owned was now destroyed.   He asks Tyler if he could move in with him, Tyler was okay with it only if the narrator could do him a favor. The favor did not ask for much, when the narrator asked what he wanted him to do Tyler replies “Hit me as hard as you can”. That moment right there was the start of something extraordinary, something that they called the “Fight Club”.  Fight club served them as an extreme therapy to let their anger and frustration out. As the rules were set by Tyler, the narrator never fails to mention how brutal and violent these fight were, but that is what attracted them.  “Since Fight Club I can wiggle half my teeth in my jaw”(112) is a quote from the book that describes the context of how harsh the fights were,   as the reader now were wondering what is the main reason of fight club? Why beating each other up makes them happy?  After being bruised and violently fighting with each other, the narrator asks Tyler who is he really fighting and he replies “My Father”. This is a crucial point in the novel; it’s an implication of Fight Club.

 Fight club is the answer for bringing manliness and freedom to his life.  As we read through the novel we find out that all the fighting and the blood that has been found on the narrator is from fighting with Tyler every night. Fight Club is only making him be in pain. All the fighting has left him with bruises and holes throughout his face. “Maybe self-improvement isn’t the answer, Tyler never knew his father, and maybe self-destruction is the answer”.  We realize that all this fighting is because they have been hurt by their fathers, they never got that closure from their families. They felt alone, empty inside, growing up without a father has really taken a toll on their life in the negative way. Being surrounded by a world controlled by consumerism and materialism, the narrator feels as though by breaking everything his life is now complete. “…and maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves”. Self-destruction seems to serve them a purpose in life. Fight Club defined their personality, the clothes and the furniture does not define you as a person, somehow self-destruction is giving them a sense of power, a sense of identity.  As fight club is being promoted throughout the country, Tyler has been working on another project, Project Mayhem. The goal of project Mayhem was the “complete and right-away destruction of civilization”. (125)

Through use of pathos we have come to the conclusion that this novel portrays self-destructive as a way for a man to feel powerful and be happy with himself. The Fight Club and Project Mayhem was only a club where men could come fight and leave happy. They do not have to worry about the materialistic things in life but the competition and physical gathering with each other left them boding in deeper levels. It is important that Palahniuk has connected this novel through rhetoric analysis. Tyler represents a strong man, a man that is not afraid to be involved in a physical fight, a man that is not afraid to break the law. 

This novel is disturbing yet emotional. The narrator eventually comes to the realization that he was the one that created Tyler. Durden never existed in real life, he was the narrator’s imagination; he became the perfect imaginary person that our nameless narrator wanted him to be. At the end of the novel the plot is completely changed and the narrator shoots Tyler and finally gets rid of him. Palahniuk explained what the world is becoming; the men are left powerless and are controlled by women. Through this novel the narrator created Tyler who was himself and through Tyler the narrator would do the things that he could not have the courage to do. This novel relates to many of us because we sometimes are faced with situations and do not have the courage to stand up or do something out of the ordinary. The purpose of Fight Club and Project Mayhem was to give rebirth to manliness, to give men a upper hand on things, to make them feel important.  Through this novel Chuck Palahniuk wanted to make men feel secure and reborn the idea that men are strong and could bond through competition and physical fighting better than the materialistic things life throws at them.

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